And What's Next?!?!?!
So what's next on our agenda? An epic road trip to California next summer!!!! We planned to do this last year, but had to cancel the trip at the last minute due to foot surgery.
The original idea for this trip spawned from the concern that our family vacations may have been a bit too Florida heavy through the years. Certainly, the kids have seen other parts of the country, but probably 75% of their trips have involved Florida and Disney in some shape or form. We've been thinking that we should probably broaden their horizons a little more before they grow up.
We thought about visiting the north east, NYC or even going up to visit an old friend in Montreal, or going to Wyoming/Yellowstone, or the Grand Canyon, etc. I had always wanted to do a mega road trip out west, and there's still the conflict of wanting to see other places besides Disney, but still wanting to experience Disney.... So we thought, how about driving to visit my aunt and uncle in San Francisco, then spending a couple days in Yosemite (I've flown over it countless times on the Soarin' ride, but I really want to see it in person!), and then make our way to the LA area... spend a couple days at
Disneyland and LA in general, and then stop at the Grand Canyon for a night on the way back. That would meet both parts of the vacation equation... Get a Disney fix, expose the kids to new parts of the country, and also satisfy a bit of the road trip dream. Perfect!!
Except for.... yeah, we had to cancel that trip a week before it was time to leave. The doctor said that I'd cause irreparable damage to my foot if went ahead with the trip and waited for surgery until we got back. (Yeah, another skateboarding injury.) We had already purchased our Disneyland tickets, but nothing else was set in stone... So we ended up doing a shorter Disneyland only trip last October. It was a blast, but we are still excited about the rest of the trip.
So we decided to give it another go next summer. The twist... is that we invited Stephanie's parents to join us. And then somehow, that turned into Stephanie's brother and his family joining us too. So this time, we'll have a party of 11 road tripping to California in two mini vans. This is going to either be epically awesome, or an epic disaster, but either way we'll be making some epic memories!!!!
The general plan is to drive from St. Louis to San Francisco over three days. Spending four nights in San Francisco. Two nights in Yosemite Valley. Five nights in Anaheim. One night at the Grand Canyon's South Rim, and then two more days driving back to St. Louis. About 5,000 miles after all the side/day trips are accounted for. Yikes!!!
Planned Highlights
While in San Francisco
Some probably but not all of these:
Yosemite
We'll only have about a day and a half here
- We have reservations locked in for two nights in the valley!
- Mostly spend time in the valley, but will probably try to hit Glacier Point and hopefully the Miraposa Grove (giant sequoias) on the way to LA
Anaheim
- This is still very much in flux. We'll have 4.5 days in LA. The first half day, we'll visit Walt's Barn in Griffith Park and then probably visit Walt's grave site too.
- For the remaining days: Not sure if we'll do 2 days at Disneyland and 2 days exploring, or 3 days at Disneyland, or even all 4 at DL!?!?! We probably won't decide this until next spring.
- We are up in the air on lodging too. Stephanie has done a lot of research and created a spreadsheet with the pro's and con's of the various options. Staying on property will probably not be an option due to the budget. (We stayed at the Disneyland Hotel last October, and I'd do it again if we can swing it!) We've looked at renting a house for the week. And some options such as the Howard Johnson (Stephanie and I had a great experience there in 2010), Candy Cane Inn (this is probably the front runner this time around), or one of the Marriott properties.
- Outside of Disneyland? We may visit a couple skateparks, hit a beach (maybe Newport or Laguna) or go north to Santa Monica Pier and/or Venice Beach. Etc. Maybe do some Hollywood stuff. Etc.
Grand Canyon - South Rim
- This is more of a "token" visit. We are basically driving past it on the way home. How can you come within 100 miles of it and "not" at least stop by for a peak or two? So, we'll leave Anaheim early morning and arrive in the early evening. We have reservations in the park. So we'll basically check in, and explore for a couple hours and watch the sunset from the rim. Better than nothing!
I'm not sure how I'll do a Trip Report for the road trip though. Probably too much non-Disney stuff to go day by day, so I'll probably make a shorter TR for anything Disney related such as the Family Museum in SF, Walt's Barn, Walt's Grave, Disneyland, etc. I'll get a PTR thread going in the next couple days and link it back here before this thread gets closed.
Thanks again everyone. It's been real fun!
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And it's not as hot. And it's not as crowded. 
